Marvel Is Giving Chewbacca His Own ‘Star Wars’ Comic

Marvel’s Star Wars comics have been on a roll recently. The ink wasn’t even dry on our glowing review of their new Lando Calrissian comic when the next series set in the newly-rebooted canon was announced: Chewbacca. Yes, Han Solo’s Wookiee companion will star in his own miniseries and we didn’t know how much we wanted this until we heard the news.

MTV has the scoop, revealing that writer Gerry Duggan and artist Phil Noto have been tasked with telling Chewbacca’s new solo adventure story. Duggan, who has been killing it on Marvel’s Deadpool comics for the past few years, and Noto, who has never drawn a comic that wasn’t beautiful, are an unexpected but delightful combination. Like the past Star Wars comics, Chewbacca continues the trend of Marvel only seeking out top-notch talent for these series.

MTV interviewed Duggan, who teased the plot of his series. The nutshell version: Chewie is on a special mission for the rebel alliance when he’s cut off from his normal allies and finds himself thrown into new conflict. Here’s more:

Chewie is on an important mission when we first meet him. He would not use the term crash-landed, but Han would disagree. He’s obviously been marooned on this planet at least temporarily, with a loaner ship that he got from the rebellion. And their roadside service is not great, so he’s got a little bit of work to do there to get the ship back up and running.

This planet is at a crossroads. There are forces there that want — like the Empire — to strip it of its resources. And obviously [there] would be some people that would be very opposed to that, and Chewie throws in with, with the good guys. He’s gonna set aside his mission for the greater good of this planet, and this new friend.

And no, we’re not going to get an English translation of Chewbacca’s dialogue or even an inner monologue. He’s going to speak entirely in his trademark raaawwwarrrs...but Duggan does admit that he provided a translation for Noto and his editors so they could have the necessary information to tell the story without that translation:

Chewie is on a very important mission when we first meet him, and you’ll be able to tell that right away without hearing him speak. But script wise, what’s been very fun for me, I’ve been writing each roar and yell twice. Once for the letterer, to be printed exactly as it is on the page and then once in parentheses for the team that basically is Chewie’s whine in English.

And that’s just for internal use. That’s just so that everyone can be on the same page and know that, hey, we’re telling this story visually and anything that we do need to know… He’s got a friend on this planet, a young woman and she speaks the basic language — so we won’t be in the dark.

Chewbacca is set to land in October, one month after the Lando miniseries wraps up. Since Lando started one month after the Princess Leia miniseries concluded, Marvel’s Star Wars comics are now really taking shape. In addition to the flagship Star Wars and Darth Vader series, there will always been an additional five-issue series following another character.